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Blame game in full swing as US shuts down

Michael VincentUpdated
Tue Oct 01 18:21:00 EST 2013

The United States government is now shut down and blame is being sprayed in all directions. Democrats are angry that Republicans didn't back down and pass a clean budget measure without attempting to throttle of the money for President Obama's health care reforms. Republicans are angry that the President wouldn't negotiate with them. And moderate Republicans have turned on their conservative Tea Party colleagues saying they make the rest of the country think the party is crazy.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The United States government is now shut down, and blame is being sprayed in all directions.

Democrats are angry that Republicans didn't back down and pass a 'clean'- so-called - budget measure without attempting to throttle off the money for president Obama's healthcare reforms.

Republicans are angry that the president wouldn't negotiate with them. And moderate Republicans have turned on their conservative Tea Party colleagues, saying they make the rest of the country think the party is crazy.

North America correspondent Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: In a simple memo to the heads of government departments and agencies, the White House Office of Management and Budget said they should now "execute plans for an orderly shutdown".

Up on Capitol Hill the vitriol has been flying thick and fast, from Democrats in the House:

ALCEE HASTINGS: I said that I felt that the majority of my friends in the Republican Party had lost their collective minds. I know longer feel that way; I know it.

MICHAEL VINCENT: From Democrats in the Senate:

HARRY REID: The proof is watching the House Republicans, because they've lost their minds. They keep trying to do the same thing over and over again.

MICHAEL VINCENT: At quite literally the eleventh hour, one hour before the midnight shutdown, the Republicans attempted to ask the Democrats if they would sit down to negotiate the budget.

Democrat minority leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

NANCY PELOSI: You do not use the threat of shutting down government to try to advance your policy agenda. That's just not the way it works, and that's what is called irresponsible. And that's why this is the Tea Party government shut down, because it is that ideological anti-government. That's what this is.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The Democrats say they've been asking the Republicans to negotiate, or to use the technical term, conference, on the budget since March but Republicans say the Democrats haven't been serious about compromise.

Georgia Republican Rob Woodall:

ROB WOODALL: The president of the United States proudly is taking to the airwaves at every single opportunity to say 'there will be no negotiation. There will be no negotiation; we will do it my way or no way at all.'

Now I concede that there are some on my side of the aisle that have made that same attestation, but we have worked with those folks to bring them off of that ledge.

MICHAEL VINCENT: And Rob Woodall was happy to remind Democrats about some House of Representatives history.

ROB WOODALL: In the 16 years that Republicans have controlled this institution - that's 16 out of the last 80 - there have been two government shutdowns. Of course in the 16 years that Democrats controlled the institution before that, there had been 15 shutdowns. So, to craft this as some sort of Republican jihad, again, offensive.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Republicans have criticised the president for not reaching out to them.Speaker of the House John Boehner was particularly angered when he did receive a phone call from president Obama today.

JOHN BOEHNER: I talked to the president earlier tonight - 'I'm not going to negotiate. I'm not going to negotiate. We're not going to do this.' Well, I would say to the president: this is not about me and it's not about Republicans here in Congress. It's about fairness for the American people. Why don't we make sure that every American is treated just like we are?

MICHAEL VINCENT: Back in 1995 and 1996 when the government was shut down by a Republican Congress, it was arguing over budget measures with the Democrat president Bill Clinton.

Now Republicans are arguing amongst themselves.

New York representative Peter King:

PETER KING: The only reason I signed on to it at all over the last week or so was because I was told that this is the way to get the process going to prevent the government from shutting down. It's obvious now there is no end in sight. This is going to go on. We have people in the conference I believe who are just as happy to have the government shut down. They live in these narrow echo chambers where they listen to themselves and their Tea Party friends, and that keeps them going, forgetting that the rest of the country thinks we're crazy.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The rest of the world may be wondering if the US is crazy as well. If it's capable of this purely self-inflicted economic damage, what about in a few weeks' time - could Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling as well? It would mean defaulting on paying its bills for the first time, with disastrous consequences for Americans and the global economy.